Hi my name is Robert, I live in Wyoming. This is my second round with iritis. My first flare up was almost 3 years ago. It lasted less than a week. After urgent care diagnosed me with conjunctivitis, put me on antibiotics. After 24 hours with out improvement I found an ophthalmologist who diagnosed it as iritis. Some pres forte and a few days later I was good as new.
This time however, not the case. 10 days ago I felt a familiar uncomfortable twinge in my right eye, on a Saturday. By Monday I was frantically searching for a ophthalmologist with a available appointment. I was seen Monday afternoon 7 days ago. As if today I am using 1 drop of pred forte every 2 hours. I work as a phlebotomist and since I am unable to see clearly through my right eye my employer prefers that I do not work, not to mention having to apply eye drops every couple of hours. I tried tapering back the pred forte on Saturday and the pain woke me up at 3am Sunday morning. I called my ophthalmologist at home and was advised to do 1 drop every hour for 4-5 hours. I am currently at 1 drop every 2 hours.
This is severely impacting both my personal life with my family and my job!
Any advise or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
What can I expect from Iritis?
Moderators: Mike Bartolatz, kwork
Re: What can I expect from Iritis?
As if having iritis isn't bad enough try walking outside with white snow bright sunlight!
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Mike Bartolatz
- Posts: 6595
- Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2004 9:58 pm
Re: What can I expect from Iritis?
Robert,
Welcome to the group!
you need to be on a dilating drop with iritis as well as the predforte. you can develop spasm in the muscle that opens and closes the iris if the iris starts sticking to the lens. the lens can become stuck and not able to open and close. this is what causes the pain in most instances linked to iritis.
make sure you put the drops in correctly too. shake the bottle vigorously for about 30 seconds. this will get the steroid suspended in solution. then with your head tilted back, put in the drop. then blink and then keep the eye closed for about 2 minute or so, press in on the inside corner of your eye while you do this so that the drains of the surface of the eye are blocked off. hold this for about 2 minutes. then wait about 15 minutes before putting in any other eye drops and repeat this procedure for each additional medication.
go buy some tight fitting wrap around sunglasses that are polarized to help with the aversion to light which will get worse when you use the dilating drops. dark black or green for use in sunny conditions or if snow is present during the day. get some brown tinted ones to use for overcast days and while using your computer inside as well.
you may need to get to a specialist in iritis/uveitis to figure out what you need to do in the future as recurrent iritis and the steroids used to treat this can cause additional problems such as glaucoma and cataracts to form. long standing recurrent or chronic iritis needs to be treated in a corticosteroid sparing approach to treatment. the Specialist can advise on this as well as doing testing for diseases associated with iritis/uveitis. today the steroids are used to put out the fire of iritis and then DMARD drugs are used to keep it quiet as long as no systemic pathogen is involved. you are at risk of blood borne diseases associated with iritis as well as to systemic diseases from other sources. you are exposed to many things in your current job as an incidental needle prick that is contaminated can put you at risk. pathogens spread through a patient coughing can also put you at risk as you are so close to them when you take blood samples. there are specialists in Denver and a very good one is Salt Lake City. I can suggest ones for you if you wish so that you get the best treatment possible since you have to travel anyway.
I strongly urge you to get tested for some of the things that can cause iritis. the HLA B27 gene as well as Sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS, TB, LYME disease, Toxocara infections, cat scratch disease, Toxoplasmosis, HEP viruses, are some of them.
if someone in your family has a systemic disease such as Sarcoidosis, MS, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, forms of arthritis, Psoriasis, GI tract stuff, molds etc. can all be linked
wishing you the very best,
mike
Welcome to the group!
you need to be on a dilating drop with iritis as well as the predforte. you can develop spasm in the muscle that opens and closes the iris if the iris starts sticking to the lens. the lens can become stuck and not able to open and close. this is what causes the pain in most instances linked to iritis.
make sure you put the drops in correctly too. shake the bottle vigorously for about 30 seconds. this will get the steroid suspended in solution. then with your head tilted back, put in the drop. then blink and then keep the eye closed for about 2 minute or so, press in on the inside corner of your eye while you do this so that the drains of the surface of the eye are blocked off. hold this for about 2 minutes. then wait about 15 minutes before putting in any other eye drops and repeat this procedure for each additional medication.
go buy some tight fitting wrap around sunglasses that are polarized to help with the aversion to light which will get worse when you use the dilating drops. dark black or green for use in sunny conditions or if snow is present during the day. get some brown tinted ones to use for overcast days and while using your computer inside as well.
you may need to get to a specialist in iritis/uveitis to figure out what you need to do in the future as recurrent iritis and the steroids used to treat this can cause additional problems such as glaucoma and cataracts to form. long standing recurrent or chronic iritis needs to be treated in a corticosteroid sparing approach to treatment. the Specialist can advise on this as well as doing testing for diseases associated with iritis/uveitis. today the steroids are used to put out the fire of iritis and then DMARD drugs are used to keep it quiet as long as no systemic pathogen is involved. you are at risk of blood borne diseases associated with iritis as well as to systemic diseases from other sources. you are exposed to many things in your current job as an incidental needle prick that is contaminated can put you at risk. pathogens spread through a patient coughing can also put you at risk as you are so close to them when you take blood samples. there are specialists in Denver and a very good one is Salt Lake City. I can suggest ones for you if you wish so that you get the best treatment possible since you have to travel anyway.
I strongly urge you to get tested for some of the things that can cause iritis. the HLA B27 gene as well as Sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS, TB, LYME disease, Toxocara infections, cat scratch disease, Toxoplasmosis, HEP viruses, are some of them.
if someone in your family has a systemic disease such as Sarcoidosis, MS, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, forms of arthritis, Psoriasis, GI tract stuff, molds etc. can all be linked
wishing you the very best,
mike
Mike Bartolatz
Moderator
Moderator